My Visit to Dafan Art Village in Shenzhen

Dafan Art Village Entrance

When you are sitting around in Shenzhen China with nothing to do there are a few options. You can visit the Minsk, a decommissioned Soviet era aircraft carrier, go haggle for iPad covers and fake watches or you can try to find some hand made stuff. Well, hand made as it turns out is a little difficult to find. At least hand made as we expect it to be. So today a friend and I tried our luck Dafan Art Village in North East Shenzhen. According to what we researched online it was an area known for mainly for oil paintings but we hoped to find something a little bit more. After all, where there is an art community there should be a variety of artists.

As we approached the area a large hand with brush sculpture (left) invited us to enter the artists coven. Other sculptures were scattered around a small garden reminiscent of the Venus De Milo with accompanying quasi Greco Roman architecture. Once you pass this area you begin to see the more familiar scenes of Chinese communities (below). Rows and rows of merchant streets with small alley ways bisecting them.

Dafan Art Village Street

(left) Dafan Alley | (right) Inappropriate Sculpture Arrangement

The remarkable thing was it really is 95% oil painters! We barely saw any other type of artist here. Both of us had hoped to see sculpture, pottery, jewelry or any other nameable art form. But it really was an oil painting village. That's not to say we didn't enjoy it though. Looking at painting just by themselves is always fun plus there is ton's of entertainment too. One of the few sculpture's we saw had these on display (left). I call it "The Inappropriate Sculpture Arrangement". The red guy in front is part of a trend in Asian art I saw two years ago in Paris. Caricatures of Asian people with exaggerated facial features. But the guy behind is clearly Bruce Lee and let me assure you he's anatomically correct. I'd show you a different view but I kinda wanna keep my blog PG-13. You get the idea.

The genre's on display do vary but the two very dominant one's were classical Asian and European reproductions. If you have the time (as I did) you can sort through the stacks and stacks of canvas and pull out the gems. You can haggle too of course. I got all of these (below) for $27.00 USD and I probably could have got them even cheaper if I was an ass. I haggled on quantity and started to haggle on the larger canvases and then I put things in perspective. I couldn't get one of these small one's for $27.00 back home so I'll give this guy a break. Plus, he let me use his bathroom which is a story for another blog entitled, "Places You Can Go To Feel Better About Your Life".

All Of These For $27.00 USD

These are all original oil paintings. Which brings me to one important little warning if you should ever find yourself here or any other similar market around the globe. Take a close look especially when there are duplicates. For instance, you can see the two paintings of The Cathedral of Notre Dame side by side as well as the Eiffel Tower paintings. The compositions are the same but the details are different. People are in different places, building facades vary, trees have moved and are different scales, altered perspective, etc. This is a sign that they were original paintings done by a skilled artist and NOT a paint by numbers hack job. I busted a few small outfits painting over digital ghosts on canvas. It was pretty obvious though with every duplicate looking exactly the same. Plus, the stroke work wasn't up to par either.

The last cool little things I want to note is you can get one of these artists to do an oil of any picture you can supply. So if you want an oil of your daughter, your dog or yourself you can drop off a picture and come back in a few days to get your painting. Personally, I've always wanted a really obnoxious 19th century painting of myself in Scottish Military Regalia (Right). It would have to be in my Lamont tartan though and I would add a loyal West Highland Terrier too. I can picture it now hanging above my mantle where I can stare at myself until I grow old. Next, trip . . . it's happening!

Next Sunday before I head back home I think I'll try another enclave that's rumored to have jewelry and stones. I can always use some raw material for my work and I have just the thing in mind if I can find good stuff.